Yey for Evanston!

I knew there was a reason I liked Evanston when I moved here almost three years ago!

School board to ignore state moment-of-silence law

Evanston-Skokie School District 65 will ignore new legislation mandating a moment of silence in Illinois public schools after trying unsuccessfully to seek a waiver that would free the district from following the law, board members said.

After discussing it Monday night, five of the school board's seven members agreed the board should not force teachers in the district's 16 elementary and middle schools to observe the law, they said.

"We have no intention of either prohibiting or forcing compliance," said board member Katie Bailey. It is unclear what steps, if any, the state might take to force the district to comply with the law. The legislation does not provide penalties for non-compliance nor offer guidelines on how to deal with schools -- or in this case school boards -- that choose to ignore it.